BREAKING FREE
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Bob called and booked a deer hunt with me, he was so excited as he hadn't hunted in years. As time drew near Bob and I talked often... and his excitement grew. Then one day Bob called and said he wasn't coming. He had lost his job and couldn't afford to pay the remainder of his hunt cost. I convinced him that he needed to come and he could always pay me for the hunt sometime in the future.
Bob did come and hunt and he harvested the best buck of his life. When he left camp, Bob gave me a custom made rifle, a beautiful gun that he had had made a few years earlier to fulfill a dream of one day taking a moose and grizzly bear. I told him I didn't want it, but he insisted I keep it as he knew I would love it and he somehow knew he would never use it for it's intended purpose.
I never heard from Bob again, although I tried to reach out to him. I finally found someone who told me that Bob had become very depressed and his wife did as well. She attempted suicide a few times and Bob was not able to leave her alone.
Depression, never has so much pain been stuffed into one ugly word. It's a dark terrifying word creating a heavy and painful feeling in our heart. Depression seems to go to your very soul, affecting everything in its path. When it is combined with physical pain it is even more debilitating.
In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 the apostle Paul has encouragement for those in suffering.
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
You can start to experience the inward renewal that the apostle Paul experienced when you come to God with your suffering. Satan doesn't want you to be renewed. He wants to keep you down. He knows that if he defeats you, you will not be available to serve the Lord.
Be alert to this incoming spiritual warfare. Depression brings on a brutal vulnerability to Satan's claim that God is not good. Jesus' death on the cross proves God's love for you. It's the only weapon powerful enough to stand against Satan's lies.
Find a way to daily defeat these attacks by Satan. Break the chains that Satan is attempting to bind you with. God has provided a way to escape the bondage of depression.
In the letter to the Galatian church Paul tells us we are indeed free. Galatians 5:13
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." (Galatians 5:13)
Allow God to release you. Find the door that God has provided to escape the chains. He has great plans for your life, don't let Satan steal those plans. BREAK FREE.
Chris Tomlin - Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
https://youtu.be/Y-4NFvI5U9w
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